Céad Míle Fáilte ~ A Hundred Thousand Welcomes!

Here we seek a rest in the shade, some cool water and a little kindness. This blog is dedicated to peace, truth, justice and a post- industrial, post-petroleum illumined world in spite of all odds against it. I very much like the line about the ancient knight (see poem below) "His helmet now shall make a hive for bees" It is reminiscent of "beating swords into ploughshares" a sentiment I heartily approve of. Thank you for visiting ~ I hope you return!

QUOTE Tens of thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets across Egypt, facing down a massive police presence to demand:Jobs;Cheaper food; andOuster of President Mubarak, who has ruled Egypt for 30 years since Sadat's assassination in 1981.Three DeadAs of the time of release of this briefing, three people are dead. Two protestors died in the port city of Suez and a security officer died in central Cairo. Protests also took place in Alexandria and industrial Nile Delta towns.Hundred InjuredAt least 100 protestors were injured in Cairo, where police used tear gas, rubber bullets, batons and dogs to try to disperse the crowds, and Twitter has been blocked. UNQUOTE Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/egypt-revolt-post-tunisia-is-a-dam-breaking-what-happens-next-2011-1#ixzz1C9zc8ZQ8

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Be sure and watch both videos. Even if you are already a Christian ~ especially if you are one.

QUOTE Jesus came first as a lamb. The Jews, expecting a savior, couldn't or wouldn't recognize him. He will return as a lion. And Christians can't or won't recognize him when he does. I tire of a bunch of whiney ass wimps and cowards using my savior's name. I tire of worthless praise songs emanating from lying lips. For some, he will come like a thief in the night. UNQUOTEHere's one for you, Unrepentant Cowboy, enjoy:

From The Daily Economic Update (Robert Denner) comes a cry of outrage over the mindless and heartless natterings of in infobabe on a popular TV network.

QUOTE This is the part of CHANGE that must be embraced. The current system is broken if it must see fit to starve fellow humans at the sake of turning a freaking profit for your retirement. This is a case where YOU can make all the difference. Stop feeding the monster and at least consider how your money is being used to destroy millions of lives. At the very least make sure that the funds you are investing in are DEVOID OF FOOD SPECULATION. And make sure you voice your outrage at Wall Street’s seeming INDIFFERNCE at the suffering of hundreds of millions of people.You want to understand the anger that the 3rd world feels against the United States? This is one HUGE reason.The absolute AMORAL delivery of that woman on CNBC still rings in my ears, even after 10 hours. How to profit from human misery, should have been the teaser they used as they went to a commercial break. UNQUOTE~~~

QUOTE Conservatives are wedded to the rules — an ideological Master Narrative propounding (at least in theory) unfettered capitalism; free markets; low taxes; minimum government; strong military; willingness to use military force, if perceived to be necessary; and representative democracy — and approve of whatever outcome the rules produce. In the conservative mind, the rules are morally justified, paramount and, therefore, unchangeable and unassailable. Accordingly, with simple, if flawed logic, conservatives claim the results their moral rules produce must necessarily be moral.......Liberals, on the other hand, focus on the results produced by the rules, and if the results are morally or practically objectionable, liberals believe in changing the rules to produce a more morally and practically desirable result (the political equivalent of ‘managing by results’). Therefore, liberals tend to be unmoved by conservative arguments based primarily on the morality of the rules.Unlike the conservatives, united by a common, unchanging creed, liberals tend to squabble a lot about just how the rules ought to be changed, simply because of the myriad combinations and permutations of possible results and developing socio-economic conditions their rule changes must address. UNQUOTE

It is as though the conservatives are the Old Testament and the liberals the New. Not a bad conceptualizing of the two.~~~Happy Martin Luther King Day!~~~

Sunday, January 9, 2011

The United States has had so many catastrophes in so very short a time that we have begun to think constantly in catastrophic terms. Most recent disaster is the shooting of an unarmed US Congresswoman, Gabrielle Giffords (D. AZ) a Federal Judge, and a little girl and other bystanders at a public appearance in Tucson AZ yesterday.

Ms. Giffords’s father Spencer, 75, wept when asked by the New York Post if his daughter had any enemies. ‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘The whole Tea Party’ – the Right wing of the Republican Party."

Palin put rifle cross hairs over Gifford's district together with words encouraging supporters to "reload" and "take aim" at Democrats. That's incendiary language that should be condemned. McCain has used very similar incendiary language but did not reference it to specific Democrats (to my knowledge) as did Palin. Come out and condemn her for it and do it loudly. She deserves that and more. - Reddit user jray7

The local sheriff had some words of potent wisdom that the wise would do well to heed in no uncertain terms:

Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, speaking about Arizona:"When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government. The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous. And, unfortunately, Arizona I think has become sort of the capital. We have become the Mecca for prejudice and bigotry. It's not unusual for all public officials to get threats constantly, myself included. And that's the sad thing of what's going on in America. Pretty soon, we're not going to be able to find reasonable, decent people who are willing to subject themselves to serve in public office." He later added: "Let me just say one thing, because people tend to poo-poo this business about all the vitriol that we hear inflaming the American public by people who make a living off of doing that. That may be free speech. But it's not without consequences."

Yes, we have the right to free speech. But the right to free speech has never included the right to shout fire in a crowded theater, and yet many of these so-called constitutionalists claim it has.

If a Detroit Muslim put a map on the web w/crosshairs on 20 pols, then 1 of them got shot, where would he b sitting right now? Just asking.

What does a caring community do when a psychotic responds to the verbally violent urgings of a powerful leader? Does it do anything beyond the obvious isolation and imprisonment of the violent psychotic? Or does it seek to remake and retool the larger community into a place where

public meetings can take place unmolested, where vigorous debate never means malice of harm intended and where verbal threats of violence are taken seriously and those who speak them reined in? Or does the community cease to care and let itself be overwhelmed by those whose dark intent is to suggest mayhem until an unhinged and unstable follower commits it?

What are Some Examples of Actionable Abusive or Insulting Language?

1. Verbal threats; 2. Humiliating statements; 3. Racial or sexual slurs; and 4. Scandalous statements. We have seen all of these in public political life in the recent past.

It is high time our politicians cooled the rhetoric to a civil and polite level.

Friday, January 7, 2011

The purpose is not security, but to humiliate and constantly remind who is "in charge". Year-to-date statistics for 2010 on airport screening at Dulles and Reagan Airports from the Department of Homeland Security:

Monday, January 3, 2011

The first rule of holes is to stop digging. With 700 military installations around the globe, and more armament than sense, how can we not see that hauling our men and women and equipment home, one by one, and putting them to work at a new green energy job, or a new local/organic agriculture job, would increase our quality of life and our respect around the world a thousand-fold? When will people stop believing the lies that are told by those in power ~ when it is obvious that those in power only care about enriching themselves at the expense of other's labor, blood and sorrow? From Nature Bats Last, please click on over and read it all.

QUOTE In a Tucson coffee shop last week I saw a woman, apparently in her early twenties, dressed in a short skirt, an apron, and high heels. Had she been behind the counter, she would have been the perfect symbol of the 1950s, a refugee from two generations gone by. We’ve moved from the unquestioning automatons of Aldous Huxley and George Orwell to the firebrands of a radical counter-cultural worldview and back again. A generational sea change swept us from post-war “liberators” drunk on early 1950s propaganda to revolutionaries willing to take risks in defense of late 1960s ideals. The revolution gained steam through the 1970s, but lost its way when the U.S. industrial economy hit the speed bump of domestic peak oil. The Carter Doctrine — the world’s oil belongs to us — coupled with Ronald Reagan’s soothing pack of lies, was the perfect match to our middle-aged comfort, so we abandoned the noble ideals of earlier days for another dose of palliative propaganda. Three decades later, we’ve swallowed so much Soma we wouldn’t couldn’t find a hint of revolution in Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto. UNQUOTE

About Me, and About The Herb of Grace

I am a 57-year old wife, mother and grandmother who currently works as a beadworker, web mistress for my husband's jewelry store/art gallery and CASA volunteer. In my life I have been a seminarian, Protestant minister, professional cook, payroll clerk, hospital orderly, columnist, cook/gardener for a commune in San Francisco in the 1970's and 80's, opthalmalogy paraprofesional, financial advisor (now retired. I held Series 6, 63 and 65 securities licenses, and insurance lines of life, annuities and variable contacts)and was a small business owner from 2003 to 2008 (Calm Eagle Family Financials LLC). Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Eastern Rite and Traditional (Latin Rite)Catholicism, ancient Irish, Buddhist and Native American spiritualities all inform my worldview and spirituality. You will find a kindred spirit here if you value the wisdom of the Holy Spirit and of Mother Earth in equal measure, for they are each other's right and left hands.

~~~Namaste, and peace be with you.

Also known as the herb of grace, and rue, rosemary has deep associations with penance, resurrection, nativity and joy. This blog is dedicated to the spirit of peace, joy and life triumphant. Legend has it that during the flight to Egypt,the Virgin Mary draped her blue cloak over a white flowering rosemary bush to dry. The blooms have been blue ever since to represent Mary’s blue cloak.

Rosemary is known as the "herb of remembrance." It is said that rosemary will grow particularly well in gardens tended by strong-willed women.

The Old Knight

His golden locks time to silver turned;O time too swift,O swiftness never ceasing;His youth 'gainst time and age hath ever spurned,But spurned in vain; youth waneth by increasing;Beauty, strength, youth, are flowers but fading seen;Duty, faith, love are roots, and ever green.His helmet now shall make a hive for bees;And, lovers' sonnets turned to holy psalms,A man-at-arms must now serve on his knees,And feed on prayers, which are age's alms;But though from court to cottage he depart,His saint is sure of his unspotted heart.And when he saddest sits in homely cell,He'll teach his swains this carol for a song;"Blest be the hearts that wish my sovereign well,Curst be the souls that think her any wrong."Goddess, allow this aged man his right,To be your beadsman now, that was your knight. ~ by George Peele